I wrote in my first notes on Troubled Blood, a discussion of Part One’s seven chapters released pre-publication,  that the comment “the wraith of Leda seemed to drift on [Strike’s] cigarette smoke around him” in the Cornwall garden chapter four scene pointed to supernatural influence being a likely theme of Strike5. 

Rowling like Nabokov populates her books with ghosts, seen and unseen; see W. W. Rowe’s Nabokov’s Spectral Dimension for a book-length treatment of this subject and Brian Boyd’s brilliant Nabokov’s Pale Fire for the importance of ghosts in VVN’s best work. I think we’re meant to pay special attention, consequently, in Troubled Blood to revelations Strike experiences while smoking, especially if they involve events or persons Leda may have known. Strike’s mysterious openness to taking the Bamborough case may have been because he was smoking when the two women approached him in chapter two. 

Having finished Troubled Blood‘s seven parts, I think I was right about the dead subtly directing the action of the novel. Join me after the jump for three markers I think Rowling-Galbraith leaves of other-worldly or spiritual influence in Strike 5 and her hidden spiritual message in a book that some may read as a celebration of occult arts. [Read more…]

Troubled Blood is largely the story of Strike’s beginning to come to terms with the facts of his conception and birth. At least ten circumstances, events, and revelations spur and foster his having to deal with his ‘daddy issues.’ Readers attentive to psychological as well as alchemical meanings leave the book having had something of a catharsis alongside Cormoran; he learns in Strike 5 that he has been largely driven by unconscious forces, most notably the internalized rage he feels about the injustice of his father’s neglect and the shame he feels about his conception’s “accidental” quality.

If Troubled Blood echoes in important ways the chief take-aways of Order of the Phoenix and Career of Evil, a working hypothesis here at HogwartsProfessor, this is the most important parallel to both. In Career we learned about Whittaker and the circumstances of Leda’s death — and how much Strike’s psyche is pre-occupied with this problem. In Phoenix, Harry Potter is reduced to the prime matter of the first Trelawney Prophecy and his life’s destiny of confronting the wizard who murdered his parents, the Boy Who Lived’s defining moment. Troubled Blood is an alchemical alembic, a psychological crucible, in which the heat of events and the catalysts of circumstances conjoin to cause Cormoran’s like transformation.

Join me after the jump for a review of those ten story embedded elements that act as agents to the beginning of Strike’s psychological metamorphosis, his breakdown nigredo and first steps toward reintegration. [Read more…]

As explained on the day of Troubled Blood’s publication, I have been reading and writing about one of the seven Parts of the just published Troubled Blood every day until finished. For Part One’s seven chapters, go here. Part Two’s seven chapters and my Top Ten Take-Aways can be found here. Part Three’s epic post? It’s right here. And here is Part Four, the longest part of Troubled Blood and the longest HogwartsProfessor post ever. Part Five, too! The murderer is confronted and apprehended in Part Six so feel free to discuss the ending (to include Part Seven) in the comment thread below.

What a wild ride! I am simultaneously delighted and disappointed by the Big Twist and Great Reveal in Troubled Blood‘s concluding Parts — delighted by Rowling-Galbraith’s brilliant concealment in plain sight of Whodunnit and frustrated that I was not able to guess it even after the deep dives into Talbot’s tarot card spreads. As Strike told Robin, the future or reality the cards predicted is only visible after the present shows itself — which will be fun to go back to now that we have our answers!

My efforts today will be charting Part Six’s chapters to see if they work as a ring, trying to identify the woman in Talbot’s vision, the spirit who appeared to him in his invocational magic ceremony that finally broke his grip on sanity, and an interpretation of Robin’s final Thoth deck three card spread. Join me after the jump for a close-up look at Troubled Blood, Part Six, and conversation in the comment thread about the wonderful ending! I hope we can agree this was Rowling-Galbraith’s best ever?  [Read more…]